The Black Death
by Krysta Vader
Summary: My first serious Star Wars fic. Lovely and depressing. *eye roll* I just HAD to pick a sad topic, didn't I?


Black Death

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Author's Note: Well, I did it. I finally started a non-humor Star Wars story… *sigh* I've been corrupted… Anyway, I don't own anything here that George Lucas or another SW author made up. Oh… one more thing, before I forget. I know very little about the Black Death, so I'm making most of that part up. Kay… that's it.

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Prologue

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

There was a Sith Lord named Darth Vader. As the historians had long believed, Darth Vader fathered two children, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. They were hidden from their father, so that they would not be corrupted by the Dark Side of the Force. They grew up, believing this was true.

But it was not. 

In truth, there were _three_ Skywalker children - Luke, Leia, and Lorence. Lorence was the third of the Skywalker triplets. As his brother and sister were, he was hidden away from his father, on the planet of the Wookies. But, unlike Luke and Leia, Lorence did not go undetected. A would-be apprentice to the Emperor, Darth Shiana, whom Darth Vader had replaced, found the child and stole him from the Wookies, replacing him with another child, ill with a fatal disease, who died within the year.

Darth Shiana trained Lorence in the ways of the Sith, molding him to become one of the greatest Dark Jedi ever to exist. Lorence eventually wed Kerana, Shiana's daughter. From this marriage, there came a daughter - Krysta Vader.

Shiana kept the existence of Lorence, Kerana, and Krysta from the Skywalker family, for fear that they would attempt to exterminate their Sith relatives. As they would have. So the Vader family continued to exist, keeping themselves secret from the New Republic until Krysta was seventeen.

Then, disaster struck…

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Part 1 - The First Victim

Coruscant

"Mom?" Leia's com link crackled. "Mom, are you there?"

"Yes, Anakin?" Leia replied, hurrying through the corridors. He'd caught her right between meetings. "What is it?"

"Mom, Jaina's coughing," Anakin said worriedly. "She sounds _really_ bad. And she's breaking out in little red spots…"

"Red spots?" Leia said, puzzled. "What do you mean, red spots? Is she there?"

"Yeah, do you want to talk to her?"

"Yes, please."

After a moment of static, Jaina's voice sounded. "Mom?"

"Jaina?" Leia was amazed at how awful her daughter sounded. "Jaina, are you all right?"

"I don't - _achoo!_" A huge sneeze cut Jaina's words off. "Sorry, Mom, I just keep sneezing."

"How long have you felt ill?" Leia asked, concerned. This sounded bad, but Jaina had been fine when she'd left her that morning. "And what's this about red spots?"

"Well, I started coughing maybe half an hour ago," Jaina explained between sneezes. "And the spots - _achoo_! Oh, drat - _achoo_!"

"Jaina, you stay right where you are," Leia ordered, instantly changing directions so she was moving towards her home. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"But Mom, your meetings - "

"Jaina, this is important," Leia cut her daughter off. "I can… sense it, somehow, through the Force. No one will miss me at that meeting, anyway. Lie down and get some rest."

With that, Leia clicked off the com link. She sighed, shaking her head. _Something's wrong,_ she thought, walking as fast as she could without flat out running. _Something is terribly wrong._

Finally, she reached the suite she and her family occupied, throwing the door open.

"Mom!" Anakin cried, spinning to greet her. "Quick, come see Jaina - she's worse - I don't know what to do - I - "

"Go call your father," Leia said crisply. "And Luke, Jacen, and Mara. They'll need to be here."

As Anakin hurried to find the others, Leia quietly entered Jaina's room. She caught her breath, staring at her daughter in horror. Jaina was lying on her bed, eyes closed in what was probably a Jedi trance, but she looked terrible. Her skin was covered with little red spots, circled with darker red rings. What wasn't red was pale white. Her breathing was shallow, even for a Jedi trance, and frighteningly uneven. And that odd, almost decaying smell…

"Mother." Jaina opened one eye, her voice weak. "Mother, is that you?"

"Jaina," Leia gasped, starting for the girl. "Jaina, I'm here, darling - "

"No!" Jaina tried her best to be forceful, but she just couldn't manage anything more than a hoarse whisper. "No. It will contaminate you, too. Mother, I - " A coughing fit racked her body. "Mother!"

_Forget contamination!_ Leia decided, and she hurriedly knelt beside her young daughter. "It's ok, Jaina, honey. It's going to be ok. I'm here."

"Mother…" Jaina could only get a word or two out at a time between the coughs, worsening with each passing moment. "Mother, I… get away… contaminate…" Blood began coming up as Jaina coughed, splattering over her and Leia.

Leia watched in panic, not knowing what to do. She'd never seen anything like this before. Jaina had been fine that morning, and now… now she was worse than anything Leia had ever seen.

"Leia! Jaina!" Han came bursting in, blanching as he saw his daughter's condition. "Force, what's going on?"

"I don't know," Leia replied, taking one of Jaina's hands. She winced as she touched the bloated, spotted flesh. "She was fine this morning, I - "

Jaina gasped, and Leia was instantly silent, turning to her daughter. Han quickly came over to take the girl's other hand. Jaina continued gasping for a few seconds, then - just as quickly as she'd begun - stopped. And with the gasping, her breath stopped, too.

"No," Leia whispered, unwilling to believe it. "No. She didn't just die, Han, she didn't!" Leia looked imploringly at her husband. "Oh, please, Han, tell me she didn't!"

"I… I…" Han stopped, choked off by tears. "Leia - "

A strangled sob escaped Leia's throat, and she clutched her daughter's body to her, ignoring the disease, not caring that it might - no, _would_ - infect her, as well. "Jaina, Jaina," she murmured, over and over. She couldn't believe it, wouldn't believe it, _refused_ to believe it. Her daughter was not dead, she was _not_! It couldn't be happening!

But somehow it was. The Black Death had come to Coruscant… and its first victim had been claimed.

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Author's Note: Geez, that was depressing. I should stick to humor… I've got half a dozen unfinished stories I started. It figures I'd pick something like this to write. Oh, well. Let me know if you hate it, and I'll quit writing.


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